Juror Juanita Zamora, of Norwich, said she can’t help the feeling that Dickie E. Anderson Jr. “got away with one.”

Zamora said just one of the 12 jurors kept Anderson from facing a second murder conviction and the possibility of 120 years in prison at his June 1 sentencing.

Anderson was convicted April 4 in the June 25, 1997, strangling of Renee Pellegrino, 41, of Waterford. Connecticut law defines life in prison as 60 years, the maximum for a murder conviction. Zamora said it was a single juror who remained unconvinced that Anderson killed not only Pellegrino, but also strangled 29-year-old Michelle Comeau, of Norwich, in 1998.

After a two-week trial in which evidence was presented about both killings, jurors delivered their verdict on the seventh day of deliberations, which included several days of trying unsuccessfully to convince the holdout juror of Anderson’s guilt in the May 1, 1998, slaying of Comeau. The inability to come to a unanimous vote in the Comeau case led to a mistrial.

In one way, Zamora said, she is disappointed with the outcome. But she also said she feels the jury members were thorough in their analysis of the cases, and she holds no ill will toward her peer.

“I was very impressed how everybody worked together,” she said.

She said she is emotionally drained from the trial, a process that included viewing crime scene and autopsy photos of the naked bodies of both women. Prosecutors David J. Smith and Stephen M. Carney had sought throughout to connect the two killings, in part through their similarities.

Zamora said she saw those similarities. And behind the scenes in the deliberations room, Zamora said, most of the others jurors saw them, too.

Early on in deliberations, Zamora said, jurors set up an easel and poster board, charting the cases and filling the room with Post-it notes of information.

“There were sticky notes everywhere we turned,” Zamora said. “Everybody expressed how they felt. At first, a lot of people were uncertain. We started looking at each report, asking where everything fell into place. We started putting them together like a puzzle. We took so long because we wanted to make sure we were on the same page. We broke the case up again and again. With the Pellegrino case, we voted four or five times. Everybody was unanimous.”

Similar killings

The bodies of Pellegrino and Comeau, each with a history of prostitution and crack addiction, were discovered a year apart, laid out in roadways — Pellegrino in Waterford and Comeau in Franklin, near the Norwich town line. Prosecutors say both women were posed with arms outstretched and legs bent. Both had been strangled by hand and with the use of some type of ligature, a rare occurrence, according to testimony from the medical examiner’s office.

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“They didn’t need to be killed and displayed in such a humiliating manner,” Zamora. “Both were caught and trapped in one of life’s deceiving webs, as many others are.”

Anderson, who was acquainted with both women, admitted having sex with Pellegrino on the night of her death. The admission came in 2008, only after Waterford detectives presented him with a DNA match linking him to Pellegrino. In prior police interviews, Anderson had admitted trading crack for sex with prostitutes.

Zamora said one of the keys to the case was the fact that Anderson and Pellegrino were seen together on the night of the woman’s death. The timeline in the Pellegrino case was convincing, she said, and gave Anderson the opportunity to kill Pellegrino and drop the body off on the morning of June 25, 1997.

“Everything fell into place with that one,” Zamora said.

The Comeau case was slightly different.

“We had very limited evidence, but we went over and over it again and again,” she said. “The positions of the bodies were not identical and the markings were not identical — but they were basically in the same place.”

In the end, most jurors agreed, Anderson was guilty of both killings.

“Everybody was tired by then,” Zamora said. “We tried to convince her — have the person see what we were seeing. She wouldn’t budge.”

Carney said he could not comment on the case and a decision on whether to retry Anderson in the Comeau case has not been finalized.

Comeau’s biological daughter, Monica Linskens, who was given up for adoption at a young age, said she was happy Anderson would be paying for a crime that had for so many years gone unsolved. Anderson’s arrest inspired her to seek out her two siblings.

“Whether he admits to the killing of my biological mother or not, I am not concerned,” Linskens said. “He knows and God knows, and his punishment will be just. I can’t explain exactly how I feel, but to say the least, I’m happy knowing what I know now. In a way, I’m thankful; because of this case being brought to light by the cold case team, I’ve found my biological family. It’s just sad that it had to be this way.

“It’s like Pellegrino’s mother (Jean Russell) said, she lost a daughter, they lose a son, and three children lost the chance meeting their mother no matter how tainted she was. I’ll be praying for the other families involved, but I sure hope Anderson prays for himself.”

Zamora said one of the puzzling things in the case was the motive — what triggered Anderson to commit the crime.

“I’m not a judgmental person. We really don’t know why this happened,” she said.

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Zamora said she will attend sentencing for some closure. She also plans to place a flower on each of the sites where the women were discovered.